BY RICK YOUNG
CHICAGO - Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class
Politics at the Millennium and the newest issue of the Marxist
magazine New International featuring the article "U.S.
Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War" will soon be on the shelves
of a number of bookstores and libraries in Chicago.
Over the course of three days in mid-March, local sales reps along with Michael Baumann from the Pathfinder staff in New York visited more than a dozen bookstores and libraries. Immediate orders, from five different stores, totaled 210 books, including six copies of Capitalism's World Disorder and five copies of New International no. 11. Other stores and two campus libraries asked for follow-up visits to pick up their orders.
Sales reps planned in advance to increase the effectiveness of the visits, making appointments well ahead of time. Pathfinder supporters reviewed the current holdings in the libraries on the Internet or through card catalogs and prepared suggested orders. At bookstores, a review of the stock and suggestions of books that would complement their existing titles helped net orders.
The buyer at one bookstore in a community college with a predominantly Black student body of 4,000 placed an order for 55 books, including Capitalism's World Disorder and New International no. 11.
During a visit to a large chain store in Evanston, Illinois, the buyer was particularly interested in Capitalism's World Disorder. He had just seen a television special on "greed." Its back-to-back interviews with wealthy big-business figures and hard-pressed strikers had an impact, he said.
While in Evanston, the sales representatives stopped at a large independent store where many students and professors shop for books. The owner's first question was, "Why haven't you been here before?" This stop netted an order for 51 books.
One university library in the area already had all but 25 of Pathfinder's English-language books and pamphlets. The bibliographer there said he intended to have every Pathfinder book on the shelves, and that he would order the missing titles. In addition he took an extra copy of the catalog to photocopy sections for others, including professors he thought might be interested in using Pathfinder titles in their classrooms.
The openness to Pathfinder titles was also apparent by the response of customers who happened to be in stores during the visits. At one community-college store, a student that the manager described as her "best customer" showed interest in the Pathfinder titles. This played a role in the manager's decision to broaden her order to 27 books. And the interest expressed by a customer in The Jewish Question at a Black- oriented bookstore on Chicago's north side - a longtime account that had several Pathfinder posters prominently displayed -prompted the owner to include it for the first time in his order of 72 books.
Volunteers in Chicago are organizing visits to nail down the remaining orders, as well as a trip to central Illinois focused on promoting Capitalism's World Disorder.